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ALLEN, SAMUEL TABOR

ALLEN, SAMUEL TABOR (1809–1838). Samuel Tabor (Taber) Allen, early Texas public figure, son of Thomas and Eunice (Johnson) Allen, was born in 1809 in Connecticut. He sailed to Texas by way of New Orleans in 1830 and joined his uncle George Allen in Harrisburg. His goal was to seek a fortune and acquire land. Allen was active in prerepublic politics and was arrested and imprisoned with William B. Travis and others during the Anahuac Disturbances in 1832. He was a delegate from Milam to the Consultation of 1835 and was a member of the General Council. He also represented Milam in the House of Representatives of the First Congress, 1836–37. He and a group of his neighbors missed fighting at the Alamo by five days, and he missed participation in the battle of San Jacinto because he was moving his family to safety at San Augustine during the Runaway Scrape. In 1835 he married Matilda (or Hester) Roberts Connell, the daughter of Elisha Roberts, who settled in the San Augustine area in 1820. Matilda was a widow with two children, and she and Samuel had two additional children. Allen acquired over 20,000 acres of land and had many business interests. In October 1838 he was a member of a surveying team of some twenty men who were ambushed by a group of Kickapoo Indians near Dawson in Navarro County. Allen was killed; only five escaped. In 1850 Matilda Allen gave 120 acres of land to establish the town of Belton in Bell County. She died in April 1879.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

A Memorial and Biographical History of McLennan, Falls, Bell, and Coryell Counties (Chicago: Lewis, 1893; rpt., St. Louis: Ingmire, 1984). Texas House of Representatives, Biographical Directory of the Texan Conventions and Congresses, 1832–1845 (Austin: Book Exchange, 1941).

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